Replace "Kill Count" with "Damage Count"

[bigolbear]

actualy i think a damage count could be darn interesting (not good for the game but darn interesting).

My money is on arcanes, clerics and rogues being at the top with barbs below and every one else below that.
role reversal for most raids.

2HF will come in before 2WF in most quests, 2WF in most raids.

Fact is a well played arcane or cleric will dominate the damage numbers due to AOE spells and instakills (which should account for any health remaining).

All this joking aside ask your self this - how much damage is a mass hold monster worth? how much damage is haste worth? how much damage is healing worth?

If you want to mess with the kill count (which is usefull purely for a bit of 'legolass and gimli' style fun) then go the whole hog with it.

FOR EACH PLAYER:
damage dealt, over damage dealt, kill count, damage taken, damage mitigated on player X(through buffs or items or abilities), health healed, over heals recieved, number of mobs incapacitated, amount of healing given, amount of overhealing given, traps disarmed, buffs cast, buffs recieved, percentage of player X's damage directly atributable to this player - eg hold spells haste bard song etc.

Now that kinda list would let people work out the kinks in their characters and more support oriented chars would be recognised for giving said support. further more it would show just how much damage a decent arcane, bard or cleric brings to the mix.

All that being said i think this is a waste of developer time, and a third party program that analyses the combat log would be the way to go for those interested. It should be obvious enough already if some one is not pulling their weight.

[kernal42]

I concur. I tried to make this argument couple of times earlier in this thread. You cannot have any individual meaningful metrics in a group-based game. The only meaningful number for any one as an individual melee would be to hit a training dummy while completely unbuffed.

It depends what you want them for. I agree that there is no measure by which you can say "My character was more effective than yours" in all situations.

On the other hand, I want to know my damage dealt. I want to swap weapons/strategies and see how that number changes. I want to see if my battlecleric is actually doing any significant amount of damage. I want to know many things that could be answered by a damage counter. Many of them could in principle be answered by damage calcs, but I prefer real data when available.

Cheers,
Kernal

[redoubt]

There are a few options:

1. do nothing AND realize that it is only the last point of damage dealt that counts. Know that the healers, CCs, buffers and trapsmiths are sacrificing their kill count for the good of the group.

2. Drop the individual kill count off the xp report.

3. Drastically increase the data displayed:
- damage dealt
- damage healed (not overhealed though)
- damage saved
---resists
---protections
---traps disabled (give average damage of the trap x number in party)
- curses, stat damage and other effects removed and their impact on damage output
---i.e. curse removal give the person removing the curse 20% of the person who was cursed damage for 30 seconds (or the remainder of the curse timer whichever is less.)
- insta kills get the full value of the hp remaining on the mob killed.
- holds give the caster 50% of the damage done while the mob is held. (Worst crit multiplier is x2.)
- other mez'd mobs give the caster 25% of the damage done while mez'd.
- a rez'd character gives 50% of its damage to the rez'r for 3 minutes.

You can also summarize the data into one "i'm uber" number like this:
Damage Dealt - damage received + damage healded + damage saved

I'd say go with option 1 or 2. Too many people would get their parts bent if the game actually displayed an accurate measure of contribution to a given quest.

[Cyr]

Replace no...add in addition to okay.

Kill count is useful as it shows a meaningful statistic that can not automatically be seen with a damage meter (just as the inverse is true). Kill count is most effective over dps meters when instant kills are taken into account (vorpals, wail, pk...).

Statistics are always good things to be able to see as a player.

[Darkrok]

/not signed

Our guild has far too much fun trying to kill steal each other and cheese our way to the kill count victory. Don't take away our mini-game within the game! :P

[Damionic]

I'd like to see a "most tactical player" in the group.

By Tactical I mean.

1. Best adaptation of environment (for example using high ledges for ranged..or creating kill zones with spells ect)
2. Best use of damage mitigation (not just talking about tanking but moving "with" the action and being one step ahead of the impending danger)
3. Sneaky kills/holds/de-buffs (How assessing the situation enabled you to kill/hold/debuff/charm "key" mobs turning the tide of the battle.
4. Saved in the nick of time (this is not just waiting til your team is almost dead..but giving one last attempt that saves someone from impending doom.

4a A heal/aid at a critical moment.
4b A fighter blocking an attack just before the mobs killing blow.
4c Something that prevents the killing blow at the last minuet (holds/charms/debuffs/disables the mob)

This would encorage better team play and give you a much better braging right then (Ha ha..I killed him)

To (Ha ha I {Pick one} that mob..preventing it from killing you!)

My Tuppence.

[Nauz]

but then the cat would be out of the bag on all my kill stealing toons....lol

[Claver]

It's a small thing, but i really feel that the Kill Count is sorta useless except for barbs or casters (in lower level quests) to wave their epeens around.

I feel that changing it to a Damage Count would not only help determine who is actually helping the party the most (kinda useless) but also help people determine if their build is working/ if they are playing well.)

I disagree.

Damage count seems as arbitrary as kill count in evaluating contribution to the party.

If my build is a 2 weapon vorpal kama wind stance finesse monk I may have a high kill count without dealing much damage.

I have a low level favored soul with high wisdom that commands and holds everything in place. Kill count and damage count would both fail to recognize this character's considerable contribution to the success of the rest of the party.

If you need to broadcast your damage; I'm sure you can drag your combat log into the chat window. It means little to me.